Guides · figures from each school’s own report
MBA scholarships: what an award changes, and what schools publish
Only 8 of the 75 schools we read publish an award amount; Harvard's need-based average is $50,000 a year.
Paid back after graduation in
4.3 years
Total cost $415,452 · 10-year NPV $234,097
| Tuition and fees, whole program | $182,800 |
| Living budget | $75,152 |
| Salary given up, 21 months | $157,500 |
| Total cost | $415,452 |
| Salary after: median base salary | $175,000 |
| Signing bonus × share receiving it | $21,450 |
| 10-year net present value | $234,097 |
| Return on the cost (present values) | 57% |
US dollars at the ECB rate of the last update. Raises of 5% a year with the MBA and 3% without, discounted at 5%, before tax. How this is calculated.
Built by Radif Partners · figures checked · Method · Editorial policy
A scholarship lowers the cost of an MBA one for one, but its effect on the payback is smaller than its size suggests, because the largest line of the cost is usually the salary you give up. For a person earning $90,000 before the degree, Harvard's full-time MBA costs $418,136 in total and repays in 4.0 years; with the school's average need-based award of $50,000 a year over two years, the total falls to $318,136 and the payback to 3.1 years. Awards come in two kinds. Need-based aid, the only kind at Harvard and Stanford, depends on your finances; merit awards, common at most other schools, depend on your profile and are used to compete for candidates. Few schools publish figures: 8 of 75 give an award amount. Minnesota's Carlson reports an average merit award of $29,500 a year and Rice an average of $91,000. Enter your own offer in the calculator below to see the payback it gives.
Why a scholarship moves the payback less than you expect
The total cost of an MBA on this site adds tuition, fees and the living budget to the salary you give up, then subtracts any scholarship and the summer internship pay. A scholarship reduces one line out of four. For a person earning $90,000, Harvard's two years cost $418,136: $260,636 in direct costs and $157,500 of salary not earned. The school's average award, $50,000 a year, brings the total to $318,136, and the payback goes from 4.0 years to 3.1 years after graduation. It is real money, and it shortens the payback by 0.9 years, because the salary line is untouched. The higher your current salary, the smaller the share of the cost a scholarship covers.
The calculator below runs the same arithmetic on Harvard with any amount you type, for the whole program.
Harvard: what a scholarship changes
Payback with the scholarship
3.7 years
| Without it | 4.0 years |
| Total cost with it | $388,136 |
Reference person earning $90,000 before the MBA.
Need-based aid and merit awards
Schools give scholarships for two different reasons. Need-based aid fills the gap between what the school costs and what the school thinks you can pay, judged on your income, savings and debts. Harvard and Stanford give need-based aid only: Harvard's financial aid page puts the average at $50,000 a year and says about half of its students receive an award; Stanford's gives about $50,000 a year for the class of 2026. Merit awards are offered to candidates a school wants to win from its competitors, often automatically at admission. Minnesota's Carlson says almost all of its class of 2024 received a merit award, at an average of $29,500 a year. HKU describes its awards as entirely merit-based, with automatic consideration. Many schools mix both kinds, plus named fellowships for women, specific regions, industries or test scores.
The difference matters when comparing offers. A need-based award follows your documents, so it moves with your finances, not with the school's interest in you. A merit award is closer to a price, set by the school to win a candidate it wants. Neither kind is common at every school, and none of the reports we read says how many admitted students received nothing.
Yale SOM: what a scholarship changes
Payback with the scholarship
4.1 years
| Without it | 4.3 years |
| Total cost with it | $385,452 |
Reference person earning $90,000 before the MBA.
What schools publish, and what they leave out
Of the 75 schools on this site, 8 publish an award amount, most of them an average. Yale's page gives $65,000 without saying whether it is per year or for the program; for a person earning $90,000, counted once over the program it brings Yale's total from $415,452 to $350,452 and the payback from 4.3 years to 3.7 years. Rice reports an average of $91,000 and says most of its full-time students receive one, without the award period; it also publishes no student living budget, so we cannot compute its payback. Most other schools list categories (merit, leadership, diversity, region) or ranges as a share of tuition, with no average and no share of the class aided. INSEAD, for example, lists its categories without any amount; IMD gives the share of students who received a scholarship but no amount.
For a two-year program paid per year, an award of $29,500 a year is worth about twice that over the degree: at Carlson, that takes the total for the reference person from $353,480 to $294,480 and the payback from 6.7 years to 5.8 years. Read every offer letter for three details: whether the amount is annual or total, whether the second year is guaranteed, and whether it reduces tuition only.
Veterans and the Yellow Ribbon program
For eligible U.S. veterans, some American schools take part in the Yellow Ribbon program, in which the school's contribution toward tuition is matched by the Department of Veterans Affairs. MIT Sloan and Wharton both describe their Yellow Ribbon awards on their financial aid pages. Amounts and the number of places are set by each school, so read its page and the VA rules before entering the figure in the calculator as a scholarship.
Using a scholarship in the calculators
Every school page has the full calculator with a scholarship field: type the amount for the whole program, not per year. The payback calculator adds a loan, which a scholarship often replaces in part, and the cost page shows the lines a scholarship does not touch. Comparing two offers, one with an award and one without, is the case where the comparison tool helps most, since the school with the higher cost before the award may come out cheaper after it.